Toxic Shocked? The Frightening Story Behind Aspartame
By Kristine Diener

SWEET NOTHINGS?

Aspartame, the super sweet artificial sweetener in the powder blue box, was approved for human consumption by the Food and Drug Administration in 1981. Is it merely a coincidence that breast cancer, brain cancer, clinical depression, ADHD, Alzheimer's Disease, and other such horrors have become epidemic?
Think again. Aspartame is one of the most dangerous substances ever to be propelled onto an unsuspecting public.

Lynn Perrinol was worried. Not just concerned, but actively worried. The 45 year old Framingham, Mass., systems analyst had enlisted the help of a local baby-sitter to care for six year old Penny Lee. The loving lady known as “granny” was the neighborhood caretaker for the plethora of schoolchildren on this tight knit block of mostly single mothers. But to Lynn's chagrin, Penny Lee's behavior soon started changing for the worst, with mood swings, headaches, and insomnia, to name a few. At first, Lynn thought it was separation anxiety, or fighting with other children. Penny Lee's pediatrician assured Lynn that nothing was wrong. A child psychologist said the little girl needed a father. But when her daughter began to complain about being forgetful, dizzy, and sick to her stomach, a terrified Lynn Perrinol was determined to find out why.

Sweetened to Death?
Aspartame's Beginnings
Since gaining approval from the FDA in July 1981 as a table top sweetener, and in 1983 for use in carbonated beverages, American consumers have been inundated with Aspartame in sweets, sodas, packaged cereals, even chewing gum. This was a tremendous coup for G.D. Searle Pharmaceuticals, which in 1966 was actively searching for new drugs, including one for ulcers, when one of the scientists on the research team synthesized an intermediate chemical, and after discovering the extreme sweetness, led Searle in the race to replace Cyclamate, the sweetener banned in 1970 for causing cancer in the bladder of mice. Although Aspartame was originally approved in 1974, objections filed by neuroscientist Dr. John W. Olney and consumer attorney James Turner - and because of investigations of Searle's research practices - the FDA put approval of Aspartame on hold. But in 1985, Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle and made Searle Pharmaceuticals and the NutraSweet Company separate subsidiaries. (1) Now the ubiquitous Aspartame has virtually replaced other sweeteners in a ferocious bid to out do each other. “These days, it's practically impossible to get anything sweetened without this stuff anymore,” laments Connie Jessup, MD, a pediatrician in private practice in Mumford, Ore., and a vociferous opponent of the chemical sweetener. “I tell all my patients who come to me with a constellation of health woes and mood disturbances, that if tests are inconclusive, to stop the Aspartame. In fact, I tell them from the very beginning: No Aspartame!”

The public recognizes Aspartame in the form of Nutra Sweet, Equal, and Spoonful, which can now be found on practically every breakfast table in America. And although many may feel it's safe, what consumers don't know is what could be the very thing that's hurting them.

Current Investigations
Chemically known as Aspartyl-phenylalaline-methylester, Aspartame is an intensely sweet substance comprised of three components: fifty percent phenylalanine, forty percent aspartic acid, and ten percent Methanol. Methanol, another name for wood alcohol, is a cumulative toxin in the body. Some may recall wood alcohol as the poison that causes the proverbial skid row drunk to end up blind or dead. The absorption of methanol into the body is increased when free methanol is ingested. Free methanol is created from Aspartame when it is heated to above 86 degrees Fahrenheit, wrecking more havoc in products that are cooked or baked. And since it is a “free” methanol, appearing without the ethanol, which is the antidote of methanol toxicity always present in natural foods such as fruit juices, the methanol in Aspartame is potentially lethal. (2) Numerous studies have indicated that the methanol in Aspartame breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde in the body. Formaldehyde can be recognized as a deadly poison and neurotoxin, utilized in funereal homes as embalming fluid. In fact, recent statements from morticians and police departments assert that they find human corpses do not decompose as rapidly as twenty years ago.

Those who support the consumption of Aspartame, generally the labs that manufacture the product, insist that aspartic acid is an amino acid that occurs naturally in neurotransmitters, which is present in the central nervous system. However, this is only a partial fact. Consumed independently, these substances enter the central nervous system in abnormally high concentrations, causing aberrant neuronal firing and potential cell death. The blood brain barrier, which normally protects the brain from excess glutamate and aspartate, as well as other toxins, is not fully developed during childhood, and does not completely protect all areas of the brain. This barrier is damaged by numerous chronic and acute conditions, and allows leakage of excess glutamate and aspartate into the brain even when intact. Problematically, by the time any clinical symptoms of chronic illness are noticed, up to 75 % of neural cells are killed. The neurotoxic effects of these damaging amino acids, when consumed as isolates, can be linked to a constellation of physical and psychological disorders. And even more horrifying, this chemical is especially toxic to the developing fetus. Fetal tissue cannot tolerate methanol, which crosses the placenta and blood barrier to destroy the nervous system.(1) “It's absolutely astonishing to me that anyone would want to use this product,” muses Jordan Sacharow, MD, an OB/GYN in private practice in Lincoln, NE, and the author of numerous articles on Aspartame and fetal tissue. “I insist that all my patients, especially my pregnant patients, do not ingest it!” And what's even worse, says Conrad McClellan, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist in Atlanta, is that “the problematic effects are cumulative and progressive. It isn't like you drink a can of Aspertame sweetened punch and wake up demented the next day. Think of it like something that happens incrementally, and if you persist with the offending habit, it'll catch up with you.”

Birth Defects and Aspartame
Dr. Diana Dow Edwards, a research scientist, was funded by Monsanto to study possible birth defects caused by the ingestion of Aspartame. Preliminary data disclosed damaging information about Aspartame, so funding was abruptly truncated.(4). And in their book, While Waiting: A Prenatal Guidebook, by George R. Verrilli, MD, and Anne Marie Mueser, they state that Aspartame is suspected of causing brain damage in sensitive individuals and that a fetus may be at risk. Some researchers have suggested that high doses of Aspartame may be associated with problems ranging from dizziness to mental retardation.
Dashing Through the Snowjob of the FDA
Since its introduction as a food additive, Aspartame has accounted for more than 75 percent of all complaints reported to the FDA's Adverse Reaction Monitoring System.(1) Recent investigations have disclosed that breast cancer has dramatically increased since the concurrence of Aspartame- whose use has quadrupled since 1984- with a now record statistic of a 1 in 8 chance of a woman developing this dreaded disease. (6) In February 1994, the United States Department of Health and Human Services released an extensive list of aspartame induced reactions, which so far include:

…. Just to name a few. (2) “But it's unbelievable,” exclaims H. Robbin Forrest, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist in private practice in Beaumont, Calif., and now a researcher in the field of Aspartame related psychological disorders. “People still don't want to attribute any adverse reactions and health problems to Aspartame! They insist it doesn't have anything to do with it! If only they knew! ”

Don't Believe Everything You Read
The FDA and the companies that hold interest in Aspartame would love to have the public believe their product is safe. But you may wonder how Aspartame was ever approved in the first place. But it wasn't so hard; after all, it only took a little manipulation and deception from the pharmaceutical company that discovered it. The FDA and Monsanto have had a revolving door employment policy for many years. The November 1992 Townsend Letter for Doctors reported a study that showed thirty-seven of forty-nine top FDA officials who left the FDA accepted positions offered by the very companies they regulated, and that they also reported that more than 150 FDA officials owned stock in drug companies they were assigned to manage. In addition, many of these organizations and universities receive enormous sums of dollars from companies connected with the NutraSweet Association. In 1993, The American Dietetic Association accepted a $75,000.00 grant from the NutraSweet company- which is a Monsanto Corporation- and blatantly stated that NutraSweet writes their “Fact Sheets.” (5) But by the very act of receiving such money, the American Dietetic Association releases its neutral position by endorsing a Monsanto product! But many health care professionals are becoming more and more wary of Aspartame. “I can't believe how badly this stuff affected me!” exclaimed W. C. Parsons-Giellen, a nurse in Dartmouth, Mass., and the mother of three year old twins. “When I first started consuming it in the mid 1980's in diet sodas, it was new, and tasted great, much better than saccharine with no lousy aftertaste. But then I began to get dizzy and forgetful, even though I had a first class memory. That was absolutely terrifying. I began to realize that these symptoms were directly related to the Aspartame, since I had never experienced them before I started drinking it. I stopped immediately and started noticing improvement, but the damage was done. It took years to recover what was left of my once fantastic memory.” And Arthur Bottner, MD, says, “I have been impressed with the level of improvement displayed with my ADHD patients when they stop using Aspartame and all related substances containing it.” says this Los Altos, Calif., psychiatrist who frequently lectures on the dangers of exotoxins. Agrees Paul M. Fleiss, MD, MPH, a pediatrician in private practice in Los Angeles, Calif. “Aspartame should never be given to children, especially since the substance is considered to pose a danger.”

Timelines

And Eric Millstone, a researcher of the Science Policy Research Unit of Sussex University in the United Kingdom, compiled thousands of pages of evidence, some of which was from the Freedom of Information Act, which showed that:

Why don't more people know? “Because people don't ask questions,” matter of factly states Joseph Jinns, a nutritionist in Los Angeles, California. “People automatically assume that giant entities like the FDA or the AMA have your best interests at heart, and that a doctor or someone with a title, someone who is supposed to take care of people, would never hurt them. Wow, all I can say is that kind of thinking is extremely naïve.”


Of the 164 studies on Aspartame, seventy-four were funded by the Nutrasweet industry. Of the 90 independently funded studies, 83 discovered problems. What is being done to protect consumers from the dangers and deleterious effects of Aspartame? Absolutely nothing. (4) “I predict a class action suit,” says Carl Johnson, a Belmont, Mich. attorney specializing in tort law. “Once this erupts, and enough people make the connection, watch for a landslide of ugly lawsuits.”

References:
1: Department of Health and Humans Services, “Report on All Adverse Reactions in the Adverse Reactions Monitoring System,” Feb. 25 & 28, 1994.
2: Compiled by researcher, physicians, and artificial sweetener experts for MissionPossible: a group dedicated to warning consumers about Aspartame.
3: Millstone, Eric, “Sweet and Sour,” The Ecologist, no. 25, March/April 1994.
4: Hearing Before the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, First Session on Examining the Health and Safety Concerns of NutraSweet (Aspartame), US Senate.
5: ADA Courier, Jan. 25, 1993, Volume 32, #1.
6: The Breast Cancer Prevention Program, Samuel S. Epstein, MD and David Steinman, MD, Macmillian,1997).
7: Stoddard, Mary Nash (ed.) The Deadly Deception, Aspartame Consumer Safety Network.
For more information:
Books
Exotoxins: The Taste That Kills, by Russell Blaylock, MD
Aspartame (NutraSweet): Is It Safe? by H.J. Roberts, MD
Bittersweet Aspartame: A Diet Delusion, by Barbara Mullarkey
The Aspartame Consumer Safety Network
PO Box 780634
Dallas, Tx 75378
214-352-4268

And as for Lynn and Penny Lee? “We're hanging in there,” says Lynn. “Penny's doing much better, and now I know my enemy. Now I spread the word.”



Kristine Diener, Psy.D., holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and is a therapist specializing in teen and adolescent girls in Los Angeles, Calif.